My philosophy is it all burns and although our place is wooded, young and older growth hardwoods, there is a finite amount, which I suppose if managed correctly, would provide many years of firewood.
My favorite is Black Cherry, it burns evenly, not to hot, depending on moisture, it dries quickly though, unlike Oak. We have oak in the mix here, a lot of it is younger, but in the older stand its much bigger, I don't cut any here unless dead or storm damage, but have sourced it while working, I found one leaner that was dark brown in the heart wood, light on the outside, smelled like whiskey or what they would make wood barrels out of, boy does that burn hot, long and leave the best coal bed, I think oak is really the best given the BTU output, but it takes a long time to dry down even when split, so you have to cut that at the right time.
Black Cherry, and Apple is abundant here, so is elm, lots of it dead and if you can get them before they are dead for long, excellent firewood, burns hot and clean, not a lot of coals, but the top 4-5" diameter is usually dry, not punked even if dead a few years, the trunk is usually what partially punks, so its good to take them when you notice they are dead, just like cut live, gnarly to split, but my splitter handles it fine.
We have quite a bit of maple, mostly hard, not sure about other types, but black cherry, apple, elm, oak when can be found, and maple is what I mostly burn,
I just burned 2 cord of willow, split and dried down, big chunks, I think its worth using, ignites easily, does not make a lot of ash, and of course it does not last as long as hard wood, but burns clean and it sure makes heat fast, which I can then maintain,use hardwood at night for the overnight burn, and what else, I could have filled my old grain truck 6 times with it, but only took 1 load from a tall 4'-0" diameter tree, should have took it all, would have heated the place for 1 season and then some.
I do use pine for kindling, sparingly, same with larger well seasoned split up pieces, just mix with hardwood to get a hotter fire and and I don't see any difference in my 8"x12" clay flue after the 6" pipe ends at the bottom of it, that pipe usually is too hot for any build up, so I'll use it, and inspect the flue just to be sure, I would not burn it exclusively given the potential risk.
I use all of the trees I cut, right to the ends, small diamter and the rest, makes much smaller brush piles and helps bolster my wood supply, it all burns, so why not use it.
